


Just in Case You've Forgotten

by Pippinpaddleopsicopolis (Barnable)



Series: Together, We Are An Ocean [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Day Seven: Free Day, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Insecure Sokka (Avatar), POV Katara (Avatar), Self-Worth Issues, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Sokka (Avatar) Has Abandonment Issues, Sokka (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Water Siblings Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26549503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barnable/pseuds/Pippinpaddleopsicopolis
Summary: When Katara finds her brother awake in the middle of the night, she tries to uncover what happened; only for Sokka to reveal deep-rooted insecurities which threaten to shatter her heart.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka (Avatar)
Series: Together, We Are An Ocean [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933663
Comments: 15
Kudos: 105





	Just in Case You've Forgotten

It was well past dark when Katara woke up.

She could tell by the visibility of the stars and the positioning of the moon that she still had plenty of time before she had to rise. Given how tired she was from all their travels the last few days, she opted not to wake up early and rolled over to fall back asleep, only to freeze where she lay. Sokka had been beside her when she went to bed, flopped down in his sleeping bag, but now he was gone, leaving only his empty bed in his place.

Katara glanced over to where Aang and Toph were, opting not to wake them until she knew if something was wrong. There was every chance Sokka had just stepped away for a minute, and she wasn’t going to ruin their sleep if that was the case. Still, concern swirled in her stomach, and she wasted no time doing a scan of the area to see whether she could track down her brother.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to find him. He was sat on the edge of the river her and Aang trained in earlier, staring out at the flowing water in silence. He still looked ready for sleep, his hair no longer tied back, and his clothing switched for a pair of loose-fitting pants. Katara sighed, turning back to Appa before she walked over. She didn’t know what was happening, but he needed a blanket before anything else.

“Hey.” Katara gently draped the blanket around Sokka’s bare shoulders, urging him to take it before she sat down. His fingers curled around the edge of the material, wrapping it around himself tightly as he shifted his gaze away from her. “Are you okay, Sokka?”

“Yeah.” His voice was quiet, his eyes still refusing to look her way. The hair around his cheek blocked any view she could get of his face, leaving her with no place to look. “I just couldn’t sleep, I guess. Does your arm feel any better?”

Katara glanced down to where she’d been cut during an encounter that afternoon, quickly nodding to confirm. “I was able to heal it most of the way, there’s just a little scratch now. What about you? Your shoulder and your jaw, I mean. Did that heal okay? Do you need me to take another look at it?”

“No, it’s—”

She reached forward to pull his hair back before he could finish, and suddenly, she understood why he wouldn’t meet her gaze. Sokka’s eyes were bloodshot, his cheeks glistening with fallen tears. The cut on the edge of his left jaw was still visible, but it looked much better than it had before; except there was another tear rolling past it, dripping off the edge of Sokka’s chin.

Rather than trying to explain or make excuses for what happened, Sokka just sniffed and dragged his hair back into place, his fingers twisting around in his lap. It was a nervous habit he’d had since they were kids, and Katara knew all too well what it meant. She nearly reached out for a hug but stopped when she realized that Sokka was still trying to avoid her gaze. It was too soon to get in his space.

“What happened?” asked Katara gently. Sokka did nothing but shrug, lifting one hand to brush against his chin. “Please talk to me, Sokka. I know you don’t really like to open up but it’s not good to keep everything inside. Just tell me what’s going on. _Please_.”

“Nothing, I’m fine.” Sokka shook his head, shoving a hand through his hair. It was too short to stay behind his ears and slid back into place almost immediately. “I just couldn’t sleep so I thought I would go for a walk.”

“We’re like, twenty feet from the campsite. That’s not even a walk.”

“Okay, I wasn’t going for a walk, but I don’t want to talk about it so just go back to bed, okay? I don’t want you losing sleep because of me.”

“But if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I’m going to lose sleep anyway.” Katara placed a hand on Sokka’s shoulder, her look holding nothing but compassion. Still, he didn’t budge, only shifting away to let her know he didn’t want her touch. “Sokka, please. I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be. You shouldn’t ever worry about me.” He froze after he spoke, shaking his head slightly and leaving Katara in shock. Her heart dropped into her stomach, her eyes widening with sadness. Sokka went on before she could say a word. “I’m not important. You’re the last bender from the Southern Water Tribe, Toph is the greatest earthbender in the world, Aang is the literal Avatar, and I’m just…”

His voice trailed off, and he bit down on his lip as he turned his gaze back to his hands. Sokka’s fingers twisted around each other, his breath shaking almost inaudibly due to the wind swirling around them. Katara didn’t even know what to say. She didn’t know how to put her brother on a pedestal beside the rest of them because he might not have had a title, but he was _so much better_ than he thought.

“Dad told me to protect you,” Sokka went on, his voice cracking with each word. “Before he left for the war, he said— he wanted me to protect you and I can’t. I’m not good enough or strong enough to— I can’t protect _any_ of you. You keep getting hurt all the time and I want to help you but I’m just dead weight. I just— I fail over and over again. I can’t protect you, I can’t help you, I’m just that _idiot_ who walks around cracking jokes all the time, and I— sorry. That was… never mind.”

She opened her mouth to respond, to say _something_ to make Sokka feel better, but she had no idea what to say. Katara always thought so highly of him that she didn’t know what to say to claims that he wasn’t. She knew how to get revenge on anyone who tried to say Sokka wasn’t good enough, but she didn’t know how to say it to _him_. She didn’t know how to make him feel better when he’d always been so strong.

“No, Sokka, hey.” It took every inch of her willpower to keep from tackling her brother with a hug right then and there. His whole body was trembling at that point, though he was clearly doing his best not to let it show. She gave his arm a squeeze when he sniffed again, resisting the urge for a full-blown embrace. “You didn’t fail us, Sokka. You’ve _never_ failed us. We don’t think any less of you for anything that’s— _Sokka_.”

Katara stopped when an awful sound escaped her brother’s mouth. It wasn’t a sob more than a wheezing exhale, followed immediately by Sokka shoving both hands over his face. He winced, flinching when his fingers passed over the injury on his jaw, but he didn’t say a word. His hair fell back into place within seconds but not before Katara got a good look at the tears escaping from his eyes, sliding down his cheeks, and dripping from his chin.

That was too much. Katara knew she should keep her distance, that Sokka already expressed that he didn’t want her to touch him, but she couldn’t watch him like that anymore. She threw her arms around his shoulders, pulling him in close to her shoulder. For a second, Katara thought that Sokka would pull away, but he didn’t. Instead, he just let her hold him, inhaling deeply before letting out another shaking breath.

“It’s okay,” was all she said at first, pressing her forehead against the top of his head. Sokka let out another choking breath, his fingers gripping around the edges of his blanket. Katara could already feel his tears soaking into her shirt, but she didn’t say a word. She squeezed his shoulders a little tighter. “You are _not_ an idiot, and you are absolutely not dead weight. You’re our _leader_ , Sokka. If it weren’t for you, we probably would’ve died a thousand times over by now.”

“That’s not true.” Sokka shook his head, taking several shallow breaths before he tried to go on. “You still get hurt. All of you get hurt all the time and there’s nothing I can do about it. And I’m just _terrified_ that one day you or Aang or Toph is going to get injured and—”

“It’s not your fault if we get hurt. I— I _know_ how scary it is. Every time I see one of you guys get hurt, I— it doesn’t matter. We’re okay. Nothing is going to happen to us. And even if it did, it wouldn’t be your fault. We all know how much you care about us, Sokka. We would _never_ blame you for anything that happened, even if—”

“But what if I blame myself? I know you all care about me or whatever even though I’m stupid and I make bad jokes, but I can’t stop feeling like it’s my fault. And if I mess up, what if you— what if I do something stupid and you realize that I’m not good enough to be part of the team and you just— I _know_ I’m not— and you’re going to see one of these days that it would— it would be easier if you just left me behind.”

That one hurt. Katara didn’t respond immediately, tightening her grip even more. She knew Sokka had abandonment issues, but she _never_ imagined it would extend to herself. To Toph. To Aang. People left him, not always by choice, but it happened, and it kept happening and Katara wouldn’t let it be her. She would _never_ let herself be the one to abandon her brother, no matter what the reason was.

“We are not going to leave you, Sokka.” He let out another awful puff of air, nodding against her shoulder. “I might be biased but you are so amazing. You think you’re nothing but you’re the plan guy, and the boomerang guy, and the funny guy, and the literal _genius_ who invented war balloons. And even if you weren’t all of those things you’re— you’re my big brother, and I don’t think I could do this without you.”

Sokka said nothing, not so much as moving for several long seconds, but then he shifted. _Finally_ , he returned her embrace, sliding his arms around his sister and holding on to her tight. Katara leaned her head onto his shoulder, pushing away the tears which stung at her own eyes while she clung to his shaking back. It was okay. They were sad and broken and they were carrying so much weight, but they were okay.

They stayed where they were for a few quiet minutes, embracing the comfort they hadn’t given each other in too long. Sokka’s hair tickled Katara’s neck, and his skin was too cold from being out from his covers in the night, but she didn’t say a word. She just pulled the blanket back around him when they slid apart, crossing the two ends in the front, and making sure he held it in place before she pulled back into her seat.

“Sorry.” Sokka brushed his hands over his face, sniffing as he pulled his knees into his chest and turned back to the water. He rested his chin on top of his legs, not moving his arms from where they clung to the blanket around his shoulders. “I shouldn’t have said any of that. I was just being stupid.”

“No, you’re not.” Katara was harsh with her tone, but not in a harmful way. She only wanted him to know the truth, that they would do _anything_ for him, regardless of how he felt about himself. “I’m proud of you for being able to talk to me about this, Sokka. I’m really sorry you haven’t been able to say anything before. You know we all love you, right? We would never leave you behind.”

He nodded, hesitating before he spoke. “Yeah, I know. I just wish I could do more.”

“You don’t have to do more. You already do so much for us, and I understand that you’re having trouble seeing that but it’s true. I promise it’s true. We never could have gotten where we are now without you and I know we’ll never end the war if you leave. We need you. All of us do.”

Sokka said nothing. He wet his lips as if to speak but didn’t say a single word; only shifting his gaze back to the river and tugging the blanket around him. His body was visibly shaking, but Katara wasn’t sure whether it was from cold or stress anymore, so she chose not to comment on it. Instead, she just slid closer to Sokka, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and leaning her head against his shoulder.

“You should go back to bed,” said Sokka quietly.

“I’ll go back once you’re feeling better. I can’t sleep while my brother is sad.”

He didn’t try to fight her.


End file.
